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    Home » Recipes » Cake Decorating Tutorials

    Buttercream Unicorn Cake- A Cake Decorating Video Tutorial

    January 22, 2017 By Melissa Diamond 24 Comments

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    We are so excited to share an adorable buttercream unicorn cake tutorial with you! Unicorn themed cakes and sweets are a huge trend right now, and so we thought that we'd join in on the fun!

    Adorable Unicorn Cake Decorating Video Tutorial by My Cake School! Member Cake Video Section.

     

    Our sweet unicorn cake is a sweet and simple tiered buttercream cake design but it could easily be created in fondant also. It could also be make as just a single tier. I was inspired by the many, many CUTE unicorn cakes that have popped up all of Pinterest, and among them is JennaRaeCakes.com who many credit as the first (or at least among the first) to popularize this sweet design!

    We hope that you enjoy the tutorial!

    Materials for Buttercream Unicorn Cake:

    We used one 8" tier and one 6" tier, each on their own cardboard cake circle. The top tier was supported by 4 bubble tea straws that were inserted into the bottom tier beneath it. 

    Buttercream Frosting recipe of choice. (We used our crusting Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream with high ratio frosting, however our Classic Vanilla Buttercream is a great option also!

    Coloring Gels: Americolor Super Black, Deep Pink, Lemon Yellow, Ivory, Wilton Leaf Green

    Piping Tips: Any variety of large and small star tips is fine. We used 2D, 1M, 21, and a Tip 3 for the bead border & lashes, 104 tip for petals, 133 grass tip, 352 leaf tip

    Fondant: Small amount of black fondant for the eyes, then ivory fondant for the horn. White fondant (with tylose kneaded into it) for the ears. You could use gum paste for the ears if you'd rather.

    Food safe Gold luster dust (We used Rolkem Gold)

    Vodka (or lemon extract) to mix with luster to create paint

    Pink petal dust + powdered sugar for "blush" (optional)

    Pipiping gel or your "glue" of choice

    Wooden Skewer for "horn"- ours was approx 10 inches

    lollipop sticks (or skewers) for anchors for ears

    Rose Nail and Waxed Paper Squares if piping flowers

    Miscellaneous: Small paintbrushes, Small offset spatula (ridged buttercream), turntable is helpful, bench scraper is helpful for applying the frosting, Viva paper towel (if using the viva method of smoothing your crusting buttercream)

    Adorable Unicorn Cake Tutorial by My Cake School! Online cake tutorials, recipes, videos, and more!

    Helpful Hints:

    I always like to chill my tiers until firm before stacking, especially when working with buttercream frosted cakes.

    The eyes could be piped in buttercream also but we chose to make them fondant as a more forgiving choice. As long as the buttercream tier is chilled, you can move around the fondant eyes a bit if needed.

    We made stars and rosettes for the mane but any variety of piping or flowers would look nice!

     

    Enjoy the Video!

    Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you will give this sweet buttercream unicorn cake a try. If you do, make sure to leave a comment and photo below. We would love to see!

    We also have a fun unicorn cake topper tutorial here: Easy Unicorn Cake Topper

     

     

     

     

    Related posts:

    1. St. Patrick's Day~ Buttercream Rainbow Tutorial!~
    2. Buttercream Rainbow Cake Tutorial
    3. Sweet Mermaid Cake Topper with Buttercream Waves~ Video
    4. Puffed Rainbow Cake- {free} Cake Decorating Video!
    5. Tiered Sheet Cake- Free Cake Tutorial
    « Oreo Cake- Delicious Scratch Cake Recipe
    Pink Champagne Buttercream »

    Comments

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    1. Melissa Diamond February 18, 2018 at 8:25 pm

      Hi Alejandra, either would work just fine but we used the Fluffy Vanilla for this one (which is a touch lighter in color due to the shortening in the recipe..assuming that you use clear vanilla.)

      Reply
    2. Alejandra Ceron February 19, 2018 at 5:28 am

      Thanks a lot for your answer!!!
      I will be trying to do this cake this week ?
      I really hope I can do something good!!! You are just like your surname! A Diamond!! Have a blessed day! X

      Reply
    3. GuppyLove February 20, 2018 at 1:59 pm

      Thank you Melissa & Bebe! Quite timely as I just had an order for one! I referred to it a couple of times for the horn & ears. Will post a pic on your Mondays shares?

      Reply
    4. Urooj Hassan March 15, 2018 at 1:51 pm

      Hi Melissa, I’ve got an order for this cake, do you think it’s doable, I’m really stressed out especially about that cream coloured flowers. Any advice would be highly appreciated.
      Thanks,
      Urooj

      Reply
    5. Melissa Diamond March 15, 2018 at 2:26 pm

      Hi Urooj, don't worry! Yes, it's totally doable. The cream colored flowers are piped much like the flowers at the 16:06 minute mark in our video...I just piped fewer petals and overlapped a little more. But with the same basic motion, you can get a very similar flower. Then you'll just chill until firm and attach with a little buttercream. For your rose nail flowers, you can just pipe more than you need, chill, and choose from your favorites. Other flowers can be just simple rose swirls piped directly onto the cake with a 1M or 2D tip. I know she'll love it! I wouldn't worry too much about making it exactly like the picture, just similar.

      Reply
    6. Urooj Hassan March 15, 2018 at 2:48 pm

      Thank you so much Melissa for your encouragement. I’ll post a picture once I’m done. Thanks again ❤️

      Reply
    7. Susan Minter March 22, 2018 at 12:22 pm

      How would you box and transport this cake, since the horn sticks up so high??

      Reply
    8. BeBe March 22, 2018 at 5:43 pm

      Hi Susan, You could add the horn once you are at the party site. Another thought is to cut a hole into the top of the cake box to accommodate the horn, then cover the horn lightly with plastic wrap.

      Reply
    9. Phyllis Mann April 10, 2018 at 2:13 pm

      Is each tier 3 layers?

      Reply
    10. Melissa Diamond April 10, 2018 at 3:19 pm

      Hi Phyllis, yes they were.

      Reply
    11. Inez Robinson September 9, 2019 at 11:15 pm

      Thank you for such a great video. I had never made a layered decorated cake before. Learned a lot of lessons, but had such fun making this for my granddaughter’s birthday.

      Reply
    12. BeBe September 10, 2019 at 9:44 pm

      Hi Inez, Your cake looks wonderful, you did a great job on this. I'm sure your granddaughter was thrilled. Thank you for posting your picture.

      Reply
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